Neech

Are my tires bad?!?

I bought Toyo T1-S about 5 weeks ago from Town Fair Tire. It was aligned a week before I got them at Acura, which might be the problem but the alignment feels fine.

The first week of driving with the Toyos I feel a shake at 50 to 65 mph. Fine, I bring them back to TF and they rebalance them. Two more weeks and the same thing is happening but now it 60 to 65 mph. I bring it to a different TF and the rebalance them. I’m checking tire pressure all the while.

For the next couple of weeks it’s the same thing at the same speeds. Only the steering wheel shakes. I bring them back to the original TF and tell them what’s up. The guy doing the work takes off one tire and sees they are statically balanced which is wrong for our stock rims. It needs the tape inside the rim as well as one weight. To make it worse, the last place it was done, just put a weight on the opposite spot to the previous job. All the wheels had 3 weights on 2 of which were opposite to each other!!

So he’s working on the last tire and either sees that the stud is stripped but tries to put the lug nut on anyway or he do it himself and blamed it on the last guy who worked on it. Point being, he could get it on but they’re paying for the repair Monday.

I get the car on the highway. SAME THING!!!! ARGh!@#$%

Could this be due to the missing lug nut, does it need another alignment or are my tires bad?

JasonT

If the car vibtrates at some speeds, it's almost always a balance issue. You might have an out of round tire. Have them swap front to back, & only rebalance, 1 wheel at a time. Left front then drive. Left rear, then drive ect. You should be able to find the bad tire.

randomwalk101

I don't htink it's the tire...cuz if it's the tire, the computer will find it when balancing. If there is minor imbalances, the computer shows it and correct it with that little tag-on lead weights. It could be your suspension problem or the fact that you're driving without the lug nut. You not only need all lugnuts to keep the tire/wheel secure from vibration, torque'ing it to the right torque is important. Overtighten one lug and let the next one loose is also a problem.

BlueSunset

I had this happen to me once and I can't remember how they found it. You might have a loose belt inside the tire. I would call the people you bought it from and ask their advice. The tires are under warranty and if you've done everything you can, they should replace tire(s).

Neech

I'll give it till Monday when they repair the stud and get the 5th lug nut on. I'll even have them realign it although I think I'm wasting money doing that. After that, I'll try the swapping of tires (good idea) and have Acura look at the suspension.

Thanks for the suggestions all!

AztecRol

iTrader: (2)

Its not the tire, its the installer!!! Not fair of you to put tire nightmare in your title. Should be Tire Balancing Nightmare or Town Faire Tire SUX!!!!!!!! They sound like complete IDIOTS!!!!! I hope you never give them any future business!!!!! The Toyos are AWESOME tires, very well made. I have had NO problems with mine!!! I have been up to 130 and NO VIBRATIONS!!!!!!! Good luck in the future!!

Neech

True, I should have put it another way. But.. it might be a bad tire so we'll see...

AztecRol

iTrader: (2)

I hope not!!! Keep us posted!!

Starter

Don't ever let someone BS you about an alignment. A bad alignment will NEVER cause a vibration problem. Other problems like tire wear or handling yes, but never vibration.

EricL

The weights should NOT be moving around.

You need to watch over them and make sure they torque your rims in a star pattern and slowly increase the torque.

Link to my experience (and how the job is done matters):

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=70273

More:

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=84183

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=79178


See if you can "watch" what they are doing...

That's the first step.

Let us know how it goes...

They sound like "clowns"

Loseit

iTrader: (1)

Hhahahaha!! Who told you that, the dealer? I hate when those fuckers tell you that one!! hahahahaha

BlueSunset

I didn't care. They replaced the tire and it was fine.

OUTRAGEOUS CL TYPE S

get them rebalanced, preferbaby, some 1 that sells big rims 19 and above, they do the best balancing on after market tires, i had the same problem, its decreased by 90% still have a little which i 'm gonn get done again, guaranteed this will do it.
toyo fz4

EricL

When I contacted two local Acura dealers, both of the "declined" to work on low-profile tires and said they sent the NSX guys to some local shops with better calibrated machines, with gear better suited to low profile tires and large wheels, and said the alignment machines ran at higher speeds.

The best rotation I had in all my years was a Discount Tire out in the Valley where they only used torque wrenches and never needed to ask about doing a star pattern. One day I was in there, they were filling a trailer with a stack of 14" wide R rubber racing tires and wheels that they just finished balancing for them...


Of course, there are still "newbies" working at some of these places, and all of the great balancing in the world wont help if some idiot grabs and impact wrench and "welds" the rims on without even trying to "snug-up" the lug nuts first...

You can end up with axial (rare) and radial runout (common) from not having someone put the properly balanced tires and rims back on...


RADIAL RUNOUT (A problem with people who refuse to torque properly):
http://www.drgears.com/gearterms/terms/radialrunout.htm


AXIAL RUNOUT (RARE -- OK):
http://www.drgears.com/gearterms/terms/axialrunout.htm

EricL

AND here is another link of possible use:

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/technical/4202T/5THEO004.cfm

small excerpt:

"...Radial Force Vibration Placed in Perspective

In the past, most tire/wheel assembly vibration was considered balance related. Because of this, tire service professionals tend to relate tire/wheel vibration in terms of balance weight. Road Force will be best understood when related to the amount of balance weight required to cause a similar vibration in a wheel that rolls round under a load. In other words, "How much Road Force creates a similar vibration caused by tire imbalance?

Most tire service professionals and factory service manuals agree that residual static imbalance should not exceed .30 oz. on average size wheels and .60 oz. on larger light duty truck wheels.

Radial Force is determined by measuring loaded radial runout. On an average passenger car tire/wheel assembly, one thousandth of an inch (0.001") of loaded radial runout is equivalent to approximately one pound of Road Force...."

AztecRol

iTrader: (2)

Eric,
You know WAY TOOO MUCH!!!!
Do you ever feel like your head is gonna explode from all the knowledge you keep in there???
You ever think about going on Jeapordy???
I wanna see a pic of you!!!
I bet your brain is the size of a large beach ball!!!!




BTW, don't stop with the info!! I learn more from you than I did from most of my high school teachers!!!!!

INFAMOUS-TYPE-S

I put some on my sisters civic, last year within a month she started to notice the sidewalls in the front had a crease run down the side. a month later the right one blew on the Long island Expressway. She took them back to the place where I bought them from and Toyo bought replaced it for free. I had checked tire pressure and the the car was not lowered. I put a Prelude motor in there but that did not add that much weight to it. The car was aligned and everything was straight. Who knows I just won't buy them again.

OUTRAGEOUS CL TYPE S

i know the cheap ones suck, which is anything under fz4 and t1-s, i like soo far my fz4, excellent in the rain, infact amazing no hydroplanning, i was going like 95 with full confidence in full blown rain, my friends where like didnt u feel anything meanwhile, they couldnt speed up.